There is a region of the sky where astronomers fear to look. Filled with dark clouds of dust, it hides an unseen mass. A mass so large it is pulling the Milky Way and other galaxies toward it.
The South Pole-Aitken Basin on the Moon’s far side is one of the most remarkable regions in our Solar System. Spanning approximately 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) in diameter, it’s among the largest known craters, with research interest from multiple space agencies. Among recent discoveries, planetary scientists uncovered an enormous mass anomaly beneath this basin, which could be key to understanding the Moon’s geological history. This mass anomaly, first revealed in 2019, has implications for future lunar missions and provides a window into the Moon’s formation.
Discovery of a Giant Mass Anomaly
Scientists detected the buried mass using data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission, which monitors changes in the Moon’s gravitational field. This unique technique enabled researchers to identify the anomaly and measure its incredible weight, estimated at around 2.18 billion billion kilograms. The mass was so dense that it caused the basin floor to dip by nearly a kilometer (more than half a mile), an indication of its massive gravitational pull. To visualize this, Peter B. James, the lead scientist from Baylor University, compared it to burying a metal structure five times the size of Hawaii underground.
NASA and ISRO’s NISAR satellite aims to revolutionize our understanding of Earth’s surface movements with frequent global scans.
By detecting minute motions in land and ice, the satellite will enhance predictions for earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and monitor infrastructure stability in ways previously not possible, saving significant time and resources in disaster management.
Continue reading “NISAR: The Powerful New Satellite That Will Track Earth’s Secret Shifts” »
NASAs Voyager 2 flyby of Uranus decades ago shaped scientists’ understanding of the planet but also introduced unexplained oddities. A recent data dive has offered answers.
In 1986, Voyager 2’s flyby of Uranus caught the planet during a rare magnetic anomaly caused by unique space weather, which influenced its magnetosphere’s behavior, offering new insights into its intense radiation belts and suggesting potential activity on its moons.
Voyager 2’s Historic Uranus Flyby
Since the initial James Webb Space Telescope photographs were released in July, our feeds have been inundated with breathtaking images of space, ranging from amazingly detailed images of Jupiter to the furthest distant known star.
This is an updated (quotes and sources) version of the previous article.
Webb has done it again, this time capturing an almost perfect Einstein ring from a distance of 12 billion light-years. And we can’t take our eyes off them.
“Solar system formation models using the new solar composition successfully reproduce the compositions of large Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) and carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, in light of the newly returned Ryugu and Bennu asteroid samples from JAXA’s Hayabusa-2 and NASA’s OSIRIS-REx missions.”
To make this discovery, the team combined new measurements of solar neutrinos and data about the solar wind composition from NASA’s Genesis mission, together with the abundance of water found in primitive meteorites that originated in the outer solar system. They also used the densities of large KBOs such as Pluto and its moon Charon, as determined by NASA’s New Horizons mission.
“This work provides testable predictions for future helioseismology, solar neutrino and cosmochemical measurements, including future comet sample return missions,” Truong said.
“This paper shows a fun way to make carbon-neutral fuels and chemicals,” said Dr. Curtis P. Berlinguette. “We’ll need plastic on Mars one day, and this technology shows one way we can make it there.”
Can we use the planetary environment of Mars to help power a future colony on the Red Planet? This is what a recent study published in Device hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated how current thermoelectric generators—which can operate in a myriad of environments—on Mars could convert carbon dioxide (CO2) into fuel and other chemicals that can be used for a future Mars colony. This study holds the potential to help scientists, engineers, and the public better understand how a future Mars colony could be managed and operated without constant need for resupply from Earth.
“This is a harsh environment where large temperature differences could be leveraged to not only generate power with thermoelectric generators, but to convert the abundant CO2 in Mars’ atmosphere into useful products that could supply a colony,” said Dr. Abhishek Soni, who is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and lead author of the study.
Continue reading “Harnessing Earth’s and Mars’ Temperature Extremes for CO2 Conversion into Fuels” »
In this work, we analyzed in detail the motion of thousands of stars within each cluster,” said Alessandro Della Croce. “It quickly became clear that stars belonging to different populations have distinct kinematic properties…
How do stars form and evolve inside globular clusters? This is what a recent study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics hopes to address as an international team of researchers conducted a groundbreaking examination of star populations that reside within globular clusters, which consists of a densely packed group of stars pulled together by gravity, with the densest part in the center of the cluster. This study holds the potential to help researchers better understand the formation and evolution of stars and star populations in these unique environments throughout the cosmos.
For the study, the researchers conducted a 3D kinematic analysis of stars and star populations within 16 Galactic globular clusters (GCs) to determine the movements of stars and star populations within these clusters and how this causes the cluster to evolve over time. Since astronomers hypothesize that globular clusters are almost as old as the universe itself, they offer a unique opportunity to study some of the oldest stars in the universe, as well. In the end, the researchers found the rotation and orbital behaviors of stars were based on their light properties.
Continue reading “Unveiling the Evolution of Globular Clusters: A 3D View of Stellar Kinematics” »
What is the origin of fast radio bursts (FRBs) and what can this teach us about the galaxies where they reside? This is what a recent study published in Nature hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated how FRB signals that originate from magnetars could reside in galaxies outside the Milky Way with the goal of better understanding the processes responsible for producing FRBs, and specifically the galaxies they inhabit. Since FRBs and magnetars remain some of the most mysterious objects in the universe, this study holds the potential to help researchers gain greater insight into not only their formation and evolution, but also how this bodes for finding life beyond Earth.
“The immense power output of magnetars makes them some of the most fascinating and extreme objects in the universe,” said Kritti Sharma, who is a PhD Candidate at Caltech and lead author of the study. “Very little is known about what causes the formation of magnetars upon the death of massive stars. Our work helps to answer this question.”
For the study, the researchers used the Deep Synoptic Array (DSA-110) to analyze 30 galaxies where FRBs have been confirmed to exist with the goal of ascertaining comparing the properties of each galaxy to the FRBs they produce. While researchers have long hypothesized that FRBs are produced in galaxies of all sizes that are actively forming stars, the researchers discovered a higher number of FRBs were produced in larger galaxies as opposed to smaller galaxies. They concluded that this was likely due to larger galaxies being more metal-rich, also known as metallicity, whereas smaller galaxies tend to have smaller metallicities.
“We’re showing that, everywhere we look now, there was some sort of magnetic field that was responsible for bringing mass to where the sun and planets were forming,” said Dr. Benjamin Weiss.
What can dust grains that were returned to Earth from the asteroid Ryugu teach scientists about the early solar system? This is what a recent study published in AGU Advances hopes to address as an international team of researchers led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) investigated how dust grains from the asteroid Ryugu that returned to Earth by Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission could help unlock secrets of the early solar system, specifically regarding the formation of the gas giants that orbit beyond the asteroid belt.
For the study, the researchers analyzed three dust grain particles for evidence of magnetic fields that might have existed when Ryugu first formed billions of years ago. In the end, they found that the particles displayed an ancient magnetic field equal to 15 microtesla, which is 30 percent of the Earth’s current magnetic field at 50 microtesla. Despite this decrease, the researchers hypothesize that this could be powerful enough to allow matter in the early solar system to coalesce, known as accretion, to form the asteroids and possibly the gas giants that orbit in the outer solar system approximately 4.6 billion years ago.
Continue reading “New Clues to the Formation of Outer Planets from Ryugu’s Ancient Grains” »
